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Saturday, 26 March 2016

Tibor Reich? I hear you ask, who was Tibor Reich?
I thought I would share some recent photos of my trip to Manchester's Whitworth Gallery and the fascinating exhibition of his work.

The Whitworth is looking fabulous after it's 15 million pound facelift!
Although you may not have heard of Tibor Reich, if you are a 'Baby Boomer' then his textile designs will fill you with buckets of nostalgia. Even if the nostalgia is not familiar the influence his textile designs have had on contemporary design is obvious.

Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1916, Reich studied architecture and textiles in Vienna before moving to the UK in 1937. In 1946 he set up Tibor Ltd, and introduced Colour into the drab interiors of post war Britain.

Printed fabric

The bright and modern designs must have been a breath of fresh air to those used to dark and sombre furnishings and fabric.

His fabrics were used by famous furniture designers of the 50's and 60's, G plan and Ercol.

Many moons ago I started my time at Art college with the intention to go into textile design, although I meandered down a different path I still have a love of pattern and I found it fascinating how Reich used photographs to create abstract fabric designs. This was based on a sweetcorn cob.

This fabric is based on a photograph of cracked mud. Before the world of digital manipulation the photographs he took were cut up and rearranged into pleasing patterns and then hand drawn as fabric designs.

His fabric designs were stylish and aspirational even gracing the seats of Concorde in the 1960s. Being an Architect he designed whole houses and interiors.

He also created tiles and ceramics

Little ashtrays free given to clients in the late 1960's

He drew such wonderful quirky faces.

This is an original design drawing for a ceramic piece.

I loved this patchwork of his fabrics!

These are some original drawings for fabric designs. Beautifully drawn and painted.

This was a very well presented exhibition that brought history to life in such a successful way!

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About me

Hello and welcome to my little space in blogland!Graduate of Edinburgh college of Art my background in woven textiles has led to my experimental use of paper, fabric and paint. My Blog is a space where I show my latest creative meanderings. My inspiration.. the wild outdoors and the beautiful Scottish Isle of Skye.